from New York Magazine, courtesy of Jim Kelly
Rachel Sklar |
Posted Monday March 5, 2007 at 01:29 PM
Big, juicy, fascinating feature on the changing times at Time magazine this week in New York by Joe Hagan, who is beginning to specialize in such things. The drama centers around managing editor Rick Stengel and his big dreams and old friends, plus John Huey trying to steer Time back to greatness on a very tight ship. The accompanying photo is of Walter Isaacson, Stengel and Jim Kelly back in the days when they "[padded] the halls in stocking feet, eating catered dinners, and closing the magazine in the wee hours of Saturday morning--essentially living and working together in the wealthy Eden of Time Inc." Sort of amazing bit of media history. Now, Stengel is trying to make it again by streamlining Time and aggressively pushing it to be smarter and more relevant while still readable. Best of luck to you, sir. Some choice bits:
- The gang at Time included Isaacson, Stengel, and Kelly plus Graydon Carter, Kurt Andersen, Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich. They summered together in the Hamptons, where they'd add Michiko Kakutani, Alessandra Stanley, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Evan Thomas. Party!
- Years later, there was tension between Kelly and Stengel when Kelly ascended to the ME position, while Stengel was getting a push from behind by Huey, then editorial director of Time Inc. Stengel was on "a tight leash"; the friendship suffered.
- After kicking Jim Kelly upstairs at Time Inc., Huey offered the top spot at Time to former NYT public editor Daniel Okrent, looking at people like Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and Slate editor Jacob Weisberg. Tina Brown apparently "volunteered herself for the job."
- Stengel's Jerry McGuire memo to Huey was called "The Overarching Question and the Answer"; it wondered how Time could be a "single iconic publication" in "this teeming media forest, this buzzing, blooming confusion of modern media." (Short-term solution: More adjectives.)
- Huey and top boss Ann Moore: "Uncomfortable relationship," with some prickly potential "griping about Moore behind the scenes," which Huey denies. He also doesn't read Time Inc.'s women's mags, which means that come awards season his gown is so going to clash with his shoes. Oh and also, "Moore's magazines were driving the profits of the company. People alone constitutes close to 40 percent of Time Inc.'s profit. By contrast, Time magazine brings in just 5 percent."
- Declining ad markets after 9/11 spurred Time to drop its rate base from 4 million to 3.25 million, wiht shortfalls being made up by editorial cuts. Cue McKinsey: 50 jobs cut, $6 million saved. Huey wasn't happy to have to do it, though, and freaked out when he found out that other departments at Time Inc. hadn't made their cost-cutting targets.
- The future of Time: Setting the news agenda with a new Friday pub date, and pumping up their web presence. Also, being more Economist-ish. Or maybe not. Depends who you talk to, Stengel or Huey.
- Stengel hired Isaacson on as a columnist against the advice of his consiglieres. But they greenlighted Kristol?
- Stengel calls columnist Joel Stein "a god to people in their twenties and thirties," indicating that he does not know anyone in their twenties or thirties.
- Smackin' down the NYT: "The New York Times talks to people who already agree with all the things in the New York Times." ETP totally agrees. Beards are back!
- Stengel interfered in Lew Grossman's cover story on Steve Jobs and the iPhone after Jobs complained, jettisoning a paragraph and relegating discussion of backdated stock options to a sidebar. Grossman was not happy. Not a great moment for Time journalism? Stengel: "Maybe a little bit."
- YOU: Roundly mocked, maybe not the best call for POY. But in Stengel's defense, the actual article accompanying the cover (also by Grossman, ETP believes) was very interesting and the POY issue was chock-filled with good stuff. Mockability skyrocketed with the CNN infomercial and Stengel's weirding-us-out pic with the cover. Still, as long as they spell "YOU" right.
- Time is not for sale...but they'll rent out its offices.
